Ash Williams
Ashley James "Ash" Williams, often referred to simply as Ash, is the protagonist/exorcist of the Evil Dead series of films and comic books - he is one of the very rare examples of a main character in horror who is a hero, albeit a very flawed and somewhat crazy one. Created by Sam Raimi, he is portrayed by and is the only character to appear in each entry of the series. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "Deadites", the evil souls of the dead. He was named the 24th Greatest Movie Character of All Time and voted the Number #1 Greatest Horror Movie Character by Empire Magazine. Biography In all his appearances Ash Williams has been played by Bruce Campbell and is famous for his chainsaw, which has replaced his missing hand ever since Evil Dead II as well as his "Boomstick" - a sawn-off 12 gauge double-barreled Remington shotgun. Ash is also very skilled at building weaponry and gadgets out of junk. The Evil Dead Ash and his girlfriend Linda, sister Cheryl, and friends Scotty and Shelly stay at a log cabin in the woods, where they find the "Naturon Demonto" (renamed or possibly translated to Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels), the "Book of the Dead", along with a tape recorder. The tape is a recording of the owner of the cabin, who was translating a passage of the book. By playing the tape, Ash and his friends awaken the evil spirits who can now possess the living. Ash's friends and sister are consequently possessed and killed one by one, until he's the last survivor. He finally destroys the Necronomicon by throwing it in the fireplace, and in doing so causes the possessed bodies of Scotty and Cheryl to rapidly decay and "die", and the evil seems to be driven back. However, the film ends with Ash being attacked or possibly overtaken by an evil spirit himself after leaving the cabin. Evil Dead II Evil Dead II continues the story from the previous film, after a stunted recap in which the audience is introduced to Ash's girlfriend Linda (who still subsequently gets possessed, decapitated and buried) and Ash himself, to the point where the evil spirit attacks Ash. From this point, the film continues the story from where the first film left off. Carried a good distance by the demon, Ash is slammed hard against a tree and falls in a puddle of water; he becomes a deadite, but shortly afterwards is released from the spirit by the coming of dawn, only to pass out. Ash regains consciousness moments before sunset. Deciding to get out of there as fast as he can, he climbs into his car and drives to where the bridge was, only to find it completely destroyed by the evil force. As the sun quickly sets, said force starts climbing up the cliff, and Ash hops into his car, driving away as fast as he can and as a result, crashing right into a tree stump that sends him flying through the windshield. With the evil close behind him, he runs into (and through) the cabin, trying to hide, and ducks into the trapdoor, waiting until the evil force leaves. After it does, Ash comes out, only to find himself stuck at the cabin with the spirits of the Evil Dead for yet another night. Shortly after, Ash hallucinates that his reflection in the mirror comes to life. After this, a deadite possesses Ash's right hand, resulting in him having to cut it off at the wrist with his chainsaw. Later, the cabin owner's daughter Annie and three more people arrive. It's near the end of this film that Ash gets his famous chainsaw in place of his right hand, with the 'boomstick' to match. The film ends with Ash being sucked into a vortex and traveling back in time to 1300 AD, where the locals claim, according to their prophecies, that he is "The Man That Falls from the Sky" who will save them from the 'Deadites'. Army of Darkness Army of Darkness picks up right where Evil Dead 2 left off, with Ash landing in a medieval kingdom. Ash is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home. Ash must also defeat his alter-ego known as "Bad Ash", who is leading the Army of Darkness to steal the Necronomicon. Ash constructs a mechanical prosthetic hand out of a gauntlet from a suit of armor, using it throughout the film in place of the chainsaw when it is not needed. The film is split into two endings. The first and intentional ending resulted in Ash defeating the Army of Darkness and being given the potion to sleep until his time. However, distracted by a sudden movement in the rocks, Ash miscounts how much to drink and awakens in London, apparently destroyed by the Deadites. The film then cuts straight to black and his insane laughter is heard. The second ending, and one more familiar with US and Australian audiences, consists of Ash simply riding off into the distance and returning to the present. Here, he boasts of his victory to his coworkers, but is suddenly interrupted by the possession of a female customer. After killing it, Ash is hailed a hero and he kisses a newfound love interest. Most home video versions, and Raimi himself, consider the original ending canonical, though spin-offs take place in the alternate ending, the video/DVD release finishing with the post-apocalyptic scene with the present day scene included . Evil Dead Ash made a in the post-credits for the 2013 remake Evil Dead, in which he says his iconic line "Groovy", then looks at the camera. Campbell will reprise his role in the Television sequel to Army of Darkness. Ash vs. Evil Dead 30 years have passed since the fateful night at Professor Knowby's cabin, and Ash has hung up his Boomstick, detached his Chainsaw and settled for a more simple life with his pet lizard "Eli". However Ash soon noticed that his evil past had returned to haunt him (Mainly because he got stoned and read passages from "The Book of The Dead"), the Deadites are back and there is no way of stopping them. However Ash recalled a certain bookstore owner,(who understood and could read "The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis") he once met, that maybe able to help him solve this dilemma. With the dangers of the approaching evil growing closer, Ash continued his daily routine so as not to attract attention. After arriving at Value Stop. Ash began his daily Workplace duties, which usually consisted of him lugging boxes of light bulbs and flirting with the Checkout Attendants. However Ash was confronted in the Storage Room by a Deadite that had possessed a Toy Doll. He manged to defeat this enemy with a little help from his co-worker, Pablo. He inevitably told his young co-worker the truth about his dark past and explained to him why he needed to leave town. However Pablo believed in his heart that Ash was sent to protect the human race from evil, and implored him to reconsider. But it wasn't enough to convince him to stay and fight the Deadites. Ash returned to Mossy Haven Trailer Park and prepared to leave, only to be confronted by Pablo and Kelly (The Checkout Attendant at Value Stop) , who needed his help in order to rescue Kelly father. However, Ash told them, that he's not willing to put his neck on the line for just anyone. Ash, Kelly and Pablo soon realise that the Evil has reached the Trailer Park, and it has taken control of the residents. With no other options, Ash reclaims his trusty, Boomstick and Chainsaw and finds the courage to destroy the Deadites. With his fear of the past finally gone, Ash thanks Pablo, and agrees to help them save Kelly's father. Although, aware that Deadite also more dangerous than the last time he facing them, he was pessimistic that they may already too late to save Kelly's father. Against his warning, Kelly goes by herself where Pablo, whom doubts about Ash' willingnes to help her parents, forced to lied that she stole the book. After killed their boss' deadite self on the way to her house, they awkwardly burst into their house with their weapons on everyone inside only for Suzy seemingly behaves normal. Later, when discovered that Pablo has forced to lied to him, he warned him that Deadites won't hestitates to manipulate people against them and given to Kelly's claim that Suzy died months ago, Deadites may have desecrate her corpse to manipulate her family and used them as bait. Though his method to expose Suzy was harsh (punching her right onto her face), he was right all along once Deadite Suzy goes rampage where she killed her husband and later, tried to do the same on Kelly. Fortunately, Ash managed to put Suzy back to rest for good. More to be added! Personality and Characteristics Unlike many heroes, Ash is rude, selfish and more than a little crazy but at the same time he is probably the best defence the world has against the demonic forces of the Deadites (the main villains of the Evil Dead series). Despite these negative traits Ash is one of the most popular horror heroes of all time and helped to popularise the antihero as a character type. Ash's negative traits is mainly because he had emotionally scarred because Deadites forces him to kill his entire family by turn his family into monster that mainly doomed unable to return to normal. His negative traits, however, also give advantage to the unseen master of Deadites, The Evil Force, to took some of his darker traits while possessed him in a brief of time. If Ash has no negative traits, however, the Evil Force will not be able to face off with Ash in their final battle with it's final form, Evil Ash. According to Sam Raimi, Ash's name is a reference to his originally intended fate at the end of Evil Dead, stating "that's all that was going to be left of him in the end." Campbell, however, suggested the name was short for "Ashley". When creating Army of Darkness, Raimi toyed with giving him the full name "Ashley J. Williams", which was later used by video games and comics involving the character. Campbell later confirmed in Cinefantastique that the full name was official. The character is also referred to as "Ashley" by his sister Cheryl in the original Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell has stated Ash is incompetent at everything except fighting the Evil Dead. Campbell also added that Ash is "a bad slow thinker and a good fast thinker". He knows some degree of hand-to-hand combat techniques, and shows prowess with a variety of weapons in various situations. His main strength seems to be his ingenuity: although he is repeatedly noted in the audio commentaries for The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II for his stupidity and ignorance, he has from the second film on been shown creating such things ranging from his chainsaw bracket and shotgun harness, gunpowder from mainly referencing its elemental makeup in a chemistry book, a fully functional prosthetic hand from a metal gauntlet, and the short-lived "Deathcoaster". His invention and ingenuity are further expanded on in the games: in Evil Dead: Regeneration, he creates fully functional weapons such as a flamethrower and a harpoon gun from spare parts that are merely laying about; and in Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, the inventiveness seems to run in Ash's family, as his blacksmith ancestor in the Colonial Dearborn level is quickly able to make a flamethrower and a Gatling gun from spare parts Ash finds for him, when Ash says those things "haven't even been invented yet". Ash's personality and state of mind change drastically throughout the franchise. In The Evil Dead and the beginning of Evil Dead II, he is something of a laid-back everyman, but by the middle of Evil Dead II and into Army of Darkness, he has grown into a much braver person, and becomes the voice of encouragement and confidence in Arthur's castle. It is at this point that Ash becomes known for his one-liners, and his personality takes on a more cynical, embittered tone. Raimi has said that he feels Ash's personality transformation in Darkness was very out of character. In The Evil Dead, Ash is portrayed as being cowardly and incapable of dealing with the horrors presented to him. Over the course of the film, Ash gradually overcomes his fears and manages to fight off his possessed friends. Also, he is shown to take his predicament very seriously in the first film, rather than in a comedic manner, as in the subsequent films. Evil Dead II portrays Ash as a braver character. Campbell commented that in the film Ash is more than capable at fighting off monsters. The character gradually became more of an antihero within Evil Dead II and its sequel, Army of Darkness. Ash's most defining characteristic is the chainsaw attached to Ash's right nub, placed after cutting off his possessed hand in Evil Dead II. Ash's dark side manifests itself as a separate entity, referred to as "Bad Ash". This persona first appears in Evil Dead II, where Ash experiences a hallucination wherein his reflection torments him over dismembering "their" girlfriend (Linda) with a chainsaw, and proceeds to try to choke him, only for Ash to realize he is choking himself. This side of him later splits off his body in Army of Darkness after a battle with "Tiny Ashes", becoming "Bad" Ash. Ash seemingly kills his doppelganger and buries him, but Bad Ash is revived after Ash incorrectly recites the Necronomicon incantations. Bad Ash later leads the Army to King Arthur's castle to retrieve the Necronomicon, even corrupting Ash's then-love interest Sheila. He battles "Good Ash" for the Necronomicon, gets burnt with a torch, and continues fighting as a Skeleton. As Henry the Red's troops arrive to assist in the battle against the undead and break their ranks, Ash coincidentally cuts off his alter ego's right hand and catapults him into the sky on a lit sack of gunpowder, which explodes and destroys Bad Ash. By the events of Ash vs. Evil Dead that set 30 years after Army of Darkness, Ash still retained his qualities albeit more wiser and his sanity became better, perhaps this because he had more peaceful life up until he was tricked by a woman to read a rite from Necronomicon Ex-Mortis . While he determined to go for undo his mistake, he don't want to return to fight against Deadites because he already tired with it, but realizing that his situation became worsens as the time passes, he decided to revealed his chainsaw-wielding persona where unlike before, far more experienced than he was in the films. He still retained his selfish qualities in the TV series where he at first unwilling to fight Deadite forces anymore until the Deadites' threats became imminent. This however, not above saving his friends whom has accompany him for fighting the evil. When Ruby the Dark One offered him a truce where she allowed him to had vacation in Jacksonville, Ash only decided to accept the deal had his friends and the other people, particulary in Jacksonville spared from whatever destruction that she possibly unleashed. Reception Ash has become very popular in modern cult horror and one of the few protagonists of said cult horror films to have such notoriety. He is most easily recognized and envisioned in later material based on his final appearance in the second film however, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a chainsaw strapped to the stump on his right arm where his hand once was. Ash is ranked eleventh on UGO.com's Top 100 Heroes of All Time list, describing him as "An egomaniacal, complaining, misogynistic goon", but also the best "demon and zombie killer ever to be portrayed on the silver screen". They additionally praised the character for his humility at the conclusion of Army of Darkness, in returning to his own time. Empire ranked him the 24th Greatest Movie Character on their list of 100, calling him a "truly iconic horror hero", and a "delirious, delicious, dimwitted" parody of action heroes. He was also ranked number 77 on Fandomania's list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, and number one on WatchMojo.com's Top 10 Horror Movie Heroes. The Evil Dead movies and the character of Ash influenced many 1990s first-person shooters such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Blood. Duke Nukem (Especially Caleb) quotes so many lines from Ash that Bruce Campbell stated that he was angered by not being paid for them. Another notable video game character influenced by Ash is Alisa Bosconovitch. In an interview, Tekken project director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada said, "Alisa's quite popular overseas as well. Personally, I didn't think we would get much of a following. We usually do research for new characters, but Alisa was something we created based on internal staff feedback. We really wanted a character with chainsaws on her arms." Scriptwriter Dai Satō then asked, "Influenced by Ash by any chance?" Harada replied, "Exactly. (laugh) I'm a huge fan of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. I just didn't think Alisa would catch on, considering her vast differences from the other characters." Quotes *My name is Ash and I am a slave. As far as I can tell, the year is 1300 A.D and I'm being dragged to my death. It wasn't always like this. I had a normal life once. Hardware, aisle twelve. Shop smart: shop S-Mart! I had a wonderful girlfriend, Linda. Together we drove to a small cabin in the mountains. It seems an archaeologist had come to this remote place to translate and study his latest find: Necronomicon ex Mortis, The Book of the Dead. Bound in human flesh and inked in blood, this ancient Sumerian text contained bizarre burial rites, funerary incantations and demon resurrection passages. It was never meant for the world of the living. The book awoke something dark in the woods. It took Linda, and then it came for me. It got into my hand and it went bad, so I lopped it off at the wrist. But that didn't stop it, so it came back. Big time. For God's sake! How do you stop it? *Yeah! All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up! See this? This... is my boomstick! It's a twelve-gauge, double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt-blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right... shop smart: shop S-Mart... You got that? *Come get some. *You're pissing me off, you ugly son of a bitch! *Keep your damn filthy bones outta my mouth. *Sure, I could have stayed in the past. I could have even been king. But in my own way, I *am* king. Hail to the king, baby. *Who's laughing now? *Groovy. Weapons Used Melee Weapons *Chainsaw arm *Diamond Chainsaw *Metal Gauntlet Ranged Weapons *Pistol *"The Boomstick" Sawed-off shotgun *Harpoon Gun *"Firelance" Home-Made Rocket Launcher *Flamethrower Category:Comic Book Heroes Category:The Chosen One Category:Protectors Category:Fighter Category:One-Man Army Category:Evil exterminators Category:Live Action Heroes Category:Time-Travellers Category:Knights Category:Arrogant Category:Chaotic Good Category:Crossover Heroes Category:Monster Slayers Category:Exorcists Category:From Zero to Hero Category:Related to Villain Category:Martial Artists Category:Successful Category:Controversial Category:TV Show Heroes Category:Tragic Category:Warriors Category:Heroic Karma Houdini Category:Sole Survivors Category:Action Movie Heroes Category:Dark Fantasy Heroes Category:Big Good Category:Genius Category:Famous Category:Comedy Heroes Category:Protector of Innocence Category:Outright Category:Titular Category:Elderly Category:Good Hearted Bastards Category:Heroic Jerks Category:Dimwits Category:Friday the 13th Heroes